Kindle Fire HD

It's about that time for a Kindle Fire upgrade, and it seems Amazon is on it already, which makes sense considering the Nexus 7 received a refresh and the iPad has gone through some major transformations in the past couple of years. Specs of the next-generation Kindle Fire series have been leaked, and they're a doozy.

Amazon's current heap of Kindle slates have been out on the market for quite some time now, begging the question of when the company will release its second-generation lineup of Kindle tablets. It's reported that we'll see a refresh sometime later this year in time for the holiday shopping season.

Amazon has apparently dropped the price of its Kindle Fire HD ereader-tablet in what appears to be a response to Barnes & Noble's NOOK HD cuts, dropping the 7-inch Android-based slate by as much as 15-percent in the US and UK. The price adjustment sees the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD come down to £139 in the UK (saving £20) for the 16GB model, and to $169 (saving $30) in the US, compared to the latest 7-inch NOOK HD at £129/$149 for the 16GB model.

Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 ereader-tablets are set to spread, with preorders lighting up in over 170 countries from today. The 7- and 8.9-inch tablets - which run Amazon's heavily customized Android platform - have been available in the US, select countries in Europe, and Japan for some time now, but will make their worldwide play from June 13 when they both begin shipping more broadly. Update: Amazon also has news about Appstore availability; more details after the cut.

Apple's iPad remains the most satisfying tablet for US users, new J.D. Power consumer research suggests, though Amazon's Kindle Fire range is close behind the Cupertino slates. The iPad scored 836 out of a possible 1,000 points in J.D. Power's 2013 US Tablet Satisfaction Study, with owners questioned on the five categories of performance, ease of use, styling & design, features, and cost. The survey also found that more than half of those with a tablet share their slate with at least one other person.

A patent filed by Amazon's CEO, Jeff Bezos, and Amazon's Vice President, Greg Hart, shows that Amazon may be launching a new, and different series of cloud-based Kindles in the future. The patent filed to the United States Patent and Trademark Office shows a remote display that will wirelessly receive its power and its data from nearby base stations. It also shows that the new "remote display" can potentially be implemented into car windshields and possibly a device similar to Google Glass.

The 4G LTE version of Amazon's Kindle Fire HD 8.9 will arrive at select AT&T stores all across the nation starting on April 5th. The carrier will be the first carrier to sell the Kindle Fire HD tablet at its retail locations, and with an optional two-year contract. This comes at a perfect time because earlier in March, Amazon had slashed the price of its Kindle Fire HD 8.9 tablets, reducing the 4G version by up to $100.

Though there was a lovely little rumor very recently surrounding the Kindle Fire HD and a bottomed-out $99 USD price point, today an Amazon representative has spoken up to dispel such madness. Speaking with SlashGear about the possibility of a $99 Kindle Fire HD tablet, Amazon said that their current price point was as low as it was going to go. They did add that "that hardware" was what was tied to the price point, however, perhaps suggesting that a newer model may be in the pipeline.

Amazon seems to want to shake things up in the tablet sector, as it's rumored that the e-tailer giant will be releasing a $99 Kindle Fire HD 7-inch tablet at some point. Currently, you can get a 7-inch Kindle Fire HD for only $199, which comes with 16GB of storage, but cutting that price down by half seems like quiet the feat.